I'm native Japanese and I took a look at JLPT N1 out of curiosity, and I was really surprised at how difficult the test was. I couldn't solve over 1/3 of the questions there. For those who passed N1, I sincerely respect you!
@@jf8050 Maybe they just mean they're Japanese by ethnicity or lived in Japan a few years when they were younger? To my understanding, anyone who's truly fluent should be able to pass N1 with relative ease.
I think an important thing to mention with regards to listening is to *actively* listen to the source. One thing I've noticed about myself is I can quite happily switch off and enjoy the melody of a song or watching a show but not pay to attention to what's being spoken
You have to be careful about this as it is much more strenuous on the mind to do so. It is important, but unlike our native language, it takes more effort, thus you'll have to be careful about overusing and burning out. Learned this the hard way and procrastinated too much
except eminem is singing. than it is quite the opposite. ^^ I am german, but I got used to english with a ton of hours listeing to eminem songs. ^^ later on it was the comment section on youtube. my grammar sucks, but at least i understand what i hear and read. :D
I have the same thing with Spanish, I have to ''switch on'' to understand but find this surprisingly strenuous, I now have more respect for foreigners who constantly have to be ''switched on'' in my country and understanding English not as a first language as I just understand English automatically.
Hi Dogen, I usually don't comment on videos and don't know how often you read comments, but I have to say, I've been watching for a few years now and you've blown it out of the park with every video! So glad to see more and more people subscribing and watching your videos. You somehow manage to release videos at exactly the right time (this time while looking for linguistics books and general recommendations), that are interesting and genuine. The patreon courses are 100% worth it and incredible in their own right, and I can't tell you how many friends I've shown your sketches to. Thank you for doing what you do! いつも楽しく、興味深く拝見しています。本当にありがとうございます！
I really think the reason I did well in Japanese was because of my professor. He's a Japanese native and translator prior to becoming a teacher. He would not let us be "good enough". I can't remember the exact phrase but it had pauses and a weird inflection. We all struggled. Our professor would say the phrase correct but it sounded so similar that we thought we said it right. Thank you, professor Morioka, for not letting us be close enough.
I just want to second the immersion part. While my Japanese is downright childish compared to Dogen and has slipped a great deal, the single best thing I did when I was learning was listen to a Japanese radio program (through an app) on my commute to school. It made me leagues better than my classmates at the listening portion and other things and I immediately noticed added difficulty when I moved and no longer had that commute and therefore didn't keep up with listening to that radio program.
@@KuroShiiiiro sadly it was on what was back then (over six years ago, yikes) a pretty terrible app. I think I tried to access it a few years later and had difficulties, but I don't remember the name of the specific program either if I ever knew it. (It was written in Kanji when my reading skills were shite.)
Hey Dogen, Since this video was about immersion, I thought I should share my experience as someone who learned Japanese through only immersion. When I was in 3rd grade, my dad showed me and my siblings this cartoon called Ranma 1/2 (I know, terrible choice to show a kid). Shortly after I got into middle school, I suddenly remembered that cartoon, and, after doing my own research, found out that they were called "anime." I started out watching stuff like Inuyasha and One Piece, binging anywhere from 4 to 8 hours of anime a day. Around the time I entered high school, I realized I could understand the general gist of what the characters were saying without having my eyes glued to the subtitles. So I started a little game with myself. I translated the Japanese in my head, poking at what the characters could be saying, then comparing that to the subtitles afterward. I continued doing that all throughout my high school life, and by the end, I was fairly confident that I could watch without subtitles. Once I got into college, I wanted to challenge that notion. I started tuning into radios and podcasts of Japanese seiyuus and comedians, and found, to my surprise, that I could understand just about 90% of their speech, leave for the occasional slang and industry-specific/science words. Around the same time, I discovered a VTuber named Nekomata Okayu and started listening to her 雑談 streams while commuting, taking a walk, or working out. I started making clips and translating her streams as a form of practice, as it would force me to research words I didn't know, jokes I didn't understand, or memes I didn't recognize. And that brings us to now, where I'm finally using anki to learn kanji so that I can read manga and doujins in Japanese. I definitely feel like my approach is a terribly inefficient way to learn Japanese, as it took me 7 years just to get to an N2-ish level of comprehension, and because not being able to read Japanese significantly hampers the amount of resources you can consult. However, I feel like it's helped me gain a deeper understanding of Japanese, one that's similar to how natives would parse the language, and I think that's the biggest benefit of immersion: Knowing not just the meaning of words, but the contextual undertones-the nuance, tone, implication, etc. The parts of words that are hidden in its use as compared to its definition.
I can confirm that this is indeed one of the best ways to learn a language through immersion alone. My native languages are Dutch and Papiamento. I only started learning English when I was about nine years old. Basically all I did was watch UA-cam videos and try to decipher what the comments meant. By the time I was in high school I basically didn't even have to study for my English exams anymore because I was practically fluent by any definition of the word. Reflecting back on that, I used the same approach a couple of years later to learn Spanish and Japanese. It works, but indeed it takes a lot of time and effort. What I'm noticing right now is that the older I get, the less patience I have to listen to incomprehensible gibberish for long periods of time. But that's what Anki and Dictionaries are for. Switching up your study methods also keeps things interesting and engaging.
Immersion is actually the MOST efficient way to learn if you combine it with Anki and reading grammar definitions. Of course, reading and listening is a must for efficiency.
Having watched more and more purely Japanese video content on UA-cam recently, while asking my Japanese friend in Twitter on the latest slangs and words they use everyday has greatly improved my listening and speaking skills over the past month. Yes, definitely agree with Dogen on this.
I actually copied what my dad did to learn English while in Pakistan, coincidentally being the same age as I am now, and that was to read a ton of children's books. and by that I mean preschool type, big text and loads of pictures
Uuh this comment is a bit old, but what books have you read? I've been looking to get a couple of children's books, maybe a short story collection or something like that. Any recommendations?
One of my favorite things is to read or listen to an excellent piece of writing. I get a lot of pleasure from searching the layers of meaning. I want to be able to enjoy excellent Japanese writing, too. I’m thankful that I can already enjoy great Japanese stories, but I also want to savor the language like I do in English. These recommendations are a great goal to work up to! Also, your studio is awesome!
日本語学習者のみなさん頑張ってください。英語が母語の人にとって日本語は相当むずかしいはずなのに、学び続けようとするやる気が素晴らしいです。尊敬します。日本人より。 I genuinely respect every single person on the earth who studies Japanese because it's freaking difficult unless you are a native Japanese speaker.
I've been slowly transitioning from a textbook approach to the immersion method (listening to interviews, podcasts and TV in native Japanese). This video has provided me with a list of great resources to help me on that front. Thanks and best of luck with the house!
The Sounds of Japanese is part of a (sort of) series of Sounds of… books for various languages by the same press (Cambridge University Press). Besides Japanese, it has books for French, German, Spanish, Chinese and Korean. They are meant as textbooks for language majors taking a phonology class in that field, so each has an introduction to phonetics and phonology for people who have not taken course in that subject.
Hello :) This is a really cool video for me, because I actually made a double profit from it. As a Russian native speaker who has been dealing with English for quite a long period and has also been learning Japanese for three years now, I've literally gotten a great pleasure to listen to such a clear and well-delivered speech by an English native speaker about Japanese pronunciation. I really enjoyed it, thanks a lot!
Great video! I was always curious about how to sound more natural when learning a language, and this video is a great resource! I think Dogen really did a lot of job for us researching about Japanese linguistics and pronunciation, I very appreciate that.
星新一さんの書く作品もめちゃくちゃおすすめです！ ショートショートスタイルで読みやすくて、そこまで難しい語彙もないと思います。 作品はちょっと古いものが多いかもしれませんが、未だにユニークなのでぜひ読んでみてください！ My best recommendation is Shinichi Hoshi's books! His style is short short story, and written with easy vocabulary(impressions from Japanese tho) His books are kind of old, but still unique. I really recommend his.
most sponsor segments need to include a few key points that the company puts forward as a condition. it used to be that vpns would require them to say that it's about security but I've noticed that nowadays that line has been dropped from nearly all VPN sponsors since the companies know that we know they are bullshitting on that point
That's generally what the VPN sales pitch has moved to these days as people have gotten more savvy about what a VPN can actually do and therefore the whole security angle doesn't really work with a lot of people any more since it's not a type of security that's relevant to the general population, while people *have* discovered a very appealing niche of watching region locked content, which is far more actively beneficial to the user.
Vtubers, Japanese speaking ones at least, are a great way of trying to listen to natural Japanese and even slang or lingo. I do feel like it’s a good alternative to anime/dramas/radio. Of course that doesn’t help with actually building confidence speaking (though to be fair neither do the other things I listed)
Hey there Dogen, great video as all others here in the comments already stated! About the house building part, I think for general questions and/or guidance you could get in touch with Rachel & Jun (from Rachel & Jun or Jun's Kitchen), as they recently moved into their house and are now Pros when it comes to customizing your house with japanese building companies. Also, maybe some room for collaborations? :D
I recently challenged 豊饒の海,a novel by Mishima, but vocabulary he uses is extremely difficult than I expected and I finally closed the book You are a fan of him right ? Amazing a viewer of you
I love Audition! I think I commented about that on one of your videos like 5 years ago :D I have also written my master's thesis on Oe Kenzaburo and his image of father in his works and now I am working on my PhD thesis about the fantastical elements in works of Murakami Haruki, Oe, Tawada Yoko and Medoruma Shun. Dunno if reading itself really helped with my Japanese (I always get flustered when talking, surprisingly mostly in simple situations like at a counter, when I am explaining literary theory or history of European feudalism, that gets somehow surprisingly easy, probably a professional disorder) but you do learn a lot of expressions and stuff so I guess it works. If somebody wants to challenge themselves they should read like 小森陽一「源氏物語の始源と現在」 or something crazy like that :D But I guess that is first beyond most people in the comment section and also like really crazy, as far as the level of the language is concerned (it is a literary analysis of Heian literature, a very academic book I read last year for a thing, with a lot of classical language and stuff). Anyway, I'll end my rambling, you're the best.
Thank you for this, I myself am struggling to maintain and improve my Japanese despite years of study, but you've clarified to me that consistency is just as important as learning new things. I'm having trouble getting the confidence to speak it despite what I know, and I'm struggling to maintain my Japanese ability. I don't have a JP language partner, so I was wondering how would one tap into that resource, be it from a website, friends or other means. Also, thank you for telling us what you've been doing regarding JP language study, its really helpful to have a sort of reference as to what level of study is necessary to maintain a certain level of JP language ability. Keep the videos coming and I hope you manage to build your house! Cheers
great stuff I do laso learn some japanese by learining currently correan in japanese... and watchnig some k dramas with korean subs often gives some new vocabs to work on 1N took me 4 times to succed because the required reading speed was boyond what we use in germany I am more the type who anjoys texts but the speed that was required was to insane to find any joy
Talking about choosing the right word reminded me of the Mark Twain quote: "The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug."
Technical correction: A VPN doesn't "trick your provider". It "tricks" the website you are accessing. When I started learning English one of the first things I tried to understand was Diablo I. So my vocabulary always had some unusual words in it. Some happened with Japanese as I learned a bit of words from anime before really studying. Even now my interests mean that some of my vocabulary might be a bit out of the way. But I have to admit that reading and writing are still a big problem for me. I mean writing on a computer with a dictionary at hand isn't that bad but by hand... I tried reading some stuff recently but always gave up. I tried Mashō no Ko 魔性の子 by Fuyumi Ono 小野不由美 because I like Jūni Kokuki 十二国記 but I couldn't even find many words in my dictionaries. Doesn't help that some of them are more like ancient Chinese than Japanese so a lot of research might be necessary. Next I tried the Rurouni Kenshin mangas. Those should be doable. I had a go at the Violet Evergarden light novels because I told a Japanese friend that he might like the show and suddenly the books appeared in my mail as "learning material". Also quite challenging. It doesn't help that my eyes have gone pretty bad but I have corrective measures now that help a lot so maybe I should give it another go. One of the most interesting compliments I ever received was from my French teacher at school: "I am always surprised how much you can say with knowing so little vocabulary." Excuse me, I think a have a bit of Amazon shopping to do.
VPNs do trick the provider by not letting them see what information is being accessed and sent. If a VPN only tricked the website, it'd be useless for actually securing information since the provider could still see and report what's going on.
@@GreenLittleApple The provider should be able to tell that you are connecting to a VPN. But the website only knows that you are accessing from a VPN. So as long as the VPN doesn't betray the connection, the website won't know who to look for.
Fuyumi Ono is also one of the first books I went to because I was familiar with her work in English... Terrible idea! It really is the hardest you can do within modern literature I think. How about 住野 よる? It was a good stepping stone for me at intermediate level.
@@mamieyoussi Thank you for the suggestion. And yes, picking a book because you know the English version and like it, isn't the best idea. Unfortunately they stopped translating them but IIRC there are fan translations available. I might give Rurouni Kenshin another go, that one might be doable but probably also contains quite a bit of "non standard" Japanese.
speaking of nativ conentet currently for several years I do listen daily to japanese youtubers, like hikaru, hikakin, nakata atsuhiko, daigo, tenchumu, hana den etc
listening to natives speak is what really made things click for me tbh. middle school weab me watched anime/naruto for years and only picked up the cliche phrases. then i jumped to johnnys, binged all their variety shows and thats when it started clicking this means this, etc. its also really important to learn filler words which dont happen naturally in scripted shows (technically yes variety is scripted too BUT) not fluent since i havent taken formal classes/sat down to study but if i can understand 80% of the stuff thats being said in an interview that will probably never ever be translated then im satisfied 😎
Can anyone recommend good native Japanese UA-cam channels? All I've seen so far is channels dedicated to teaching Japanese, street interviews, craft videos where nobody says anything or prank/gaming/anime oriented channels - I'm not interested in any of that. I noticed that I mainly watch video essays in English and that's how I'm maintaining that language but I struggle with finding anything in Japanese while I'm already past intermediate level in my study. I would like to listen to someone discussing the national news, talking about the culture or science, etc. I just don't know who's a go to channel for that. Thanks in advance!
😮 INCREDIBLY USEFUL VIDEO and perfect timing for me!! I just moved back to Japan and will be studying Japanese like crazy over winter vacation!! LOVE ALL YOUR VIDEOS 😊 ❤️ thank you 🙏
My fav anime and manga is monster, too! :) I struggle with starting learning. I had courses but I tend to forget grammer and words when not using (normal, I guess) and try to implement hearing japanese and getting back into anime (so i get a little bit of japanese into my day). and i am struggling to find books and stuff I can read, because more than often i dont understand anything, because i dont get the grammer or the words. that frustrates to no end and i am really at a loss where to start and stay consistent...:/
I've been listing to music and watching anime, when I talk (roughly) to native speakers they think I'm Japanese because I don't have a accent. I would just repeat words in anime to train myself how to speak. Thank you for all these tips!
ドウゲン(道元)か? 正法眼蔵。只管打坐。Forget about 村上春樹。I recommend you read 「この国のかたち」全6巻 written by 司馬遼太郎. These are the essys about essential aspects Japanese history and culture.
道元さん、はじめまして。I was introduced to your channel through UA-cam algorithm pretty recently and I'm already having serious addiction with your videos both comedies and studying topics. By the way, I am really curious how much you can score at Japanese literature test witch is a part of the common test for university admissions (formerly known as the national center test for university admissions), as native speakers like myself are much more acquainted with it rather than JLPT. The exam of 2022 will be held from Jan 15th to 16th, and the examination paper will be published for free on websites like Asahi Shimbun Digital on the same day. I will appreciate it if you can make a video on this test and disclose your great ability in Japanese. 何卒よろしくお願いいたします。
I feel like I’m at a point where I mainly just need to learn more vocabulary and some grammar but idk what the best way to do this would be. It’s also hard to find time with school and everything. I think im at a weird in between stage where I know a good amount but not enough to watch/read something and fully understand it. I’d probably understand some but not a lot
Hello Dogen, I appreciate the advice that you gave concerning studying Japanese, as I have started to do so, this year in April. As for listening to native Japanese speakers, I watch and listen to WNI, a weather broadcasting channel (where everything is spoken into Japanese). I am able to learn a bit more about Japanese culture and vocabulary for quite a while now. The channel itself gives weather forecast 24 hours days, 365 days in year, which I find quite informative. All the Japanese spoken in the program is generally standard Japanese; however, some casters do put in some of their own dialect from time to time. Therefore, I was wondering if this channel is a good medium to improve my Japanese. Or do I need to approach other mediums to better myself in nihongo. Thank you for your time.
Dogen, really like your content, I have spanish as first language im currently learning Japanese and improving my English, for japanese listening what is your opinion on jp Vtubers?
"How have I been studying Japanese, you ask? Good question. First, you need to understand that Mishima Yukio is better than Murakami Haruki --" *cue ending cards*
Something I'd really like to know, related to the 音声を教える resource: are there any similarly good converse resources for explaining how best to correct English pronunciation? I very much appreciate the idea of people knowing how to correct me, and I'd like to be able to offer corrections/advice in a more clear/efficient manner than I currently do.
LETS GOOOOOOOO I'm not trying to be an architect for a job or anything but if I ever grow old it has always been a dream of mine to build my own house idk why Dogen saying he's buildin a house gets me hype but it does
I don't get why reading N1 prep books is advisable for your level (near native) when you can just read the news in Japanese. There's a lot of topics that the news can cover without the style of writing being catered to language learners. Also, if "present day society" no longer challenges you, have you tried reading novels from genres like sci-fi, history, or fantasy?
I was browsing the comments to see if my question/comment was asked and it doesn't seems to be: I strongly believe that you need to learn from a native speaker. There's so many subtleties in a language (whether it's contextual or pronunciation) that it's better to learn them as soon as possible. Would you agree with that statement as a N1 graduate?
I can somehow identify myself because I'm trying to maintain the level I have in English by listening to native English-speaking youtubers. I find it funny that I watch a video about studying Japanese in order to keep my English level from deteriorating.
To add to what Dogen is saying, MOOCs are also a great way to expand your vocabulary range in Japanese. Taking notes as you listen or doing the provided tests are good ways to interact with the content and retain vocabulary. It's a pity many Japanese MOOCs are about digitalization and therefore full of カタカナ語, but I keep looking for those rare humanities courses!
I'm an intermediate to advance level Japanese, but I haven't read/written kanji in a while, and it's depleted immensely. Would you have any advice on how to pick up kanji again without going back to square one?
Me listening to this "no way that's way too difficult for learning Japanese" while also realising that I have done just that with English. Listening to a lifetime worth of all sorts of English content from being 10 years old to be able to comprehend and not sounding overwhelmingly Swenglish when speaking English. My brain constantly protesting Japanese content when it feels like a wall of sounds that makes almost no sense and maybe 5 to 10 percent of words pop out and sort of makes sense. When I indulge in almost any English content it's 5 to 10 percent that I have to infer or investigate so it is indeed quite the opposite.
I think that not adding a する gives more impact to the title of the video. Instead of writing a full sentence, it gives a more dynamic title. This is also true for newspaper articles, I saw à lot of them with words 'missing' in order to create this impression. As you have particles in japanese, you can more easily guess the missing words. I am not sure about English, but in French, erasing words from newspaper articles titles is also frequent.
@@Sylvelarmes my first language is spanish (fairly close), so i do get the title thing you mention and it makes all the sense in the world lol, thanks a bunch man!
Finding comprehensible input as a beginner is *painful*. I still can’t understand よつばと. I’ve been reading / listening to books on PIBO, but even there I have a hard time understanding anything for kids above 2 or 3 years old 😭
Regionlocked streaming services stay regionlocked regardless of VPN if you live in Europe because of a EU regulation of cross-border portability of online content.
Hey Dogen, thanks for consistently putting out quality content! Do you (or anyone reading this) have any suggestions for apps someone living outside of Japan can use for reading Japanese novels?
If you want to improve your learning of Japanese, you have to do what Dogen advises in this video: listen to as much speech from native Japanese speakers as possible. That's true for beginners as much as for anyone else. It's tricky to find material spoken by native Japanese speakers that is of a suitable level for beginners to get much out of, but if you keep looking, you will find some gems, here and there.
@@omp199 That’s great advice! I was thinking of watching at least a bit of Japanese shows and movies every day. I watch native speakers’ videos in Japanese on UA-cam and get crazy excited when I recognize words / phrases / grammar. 😄 I’m in this for the lifelong language journey! Southern American accent and all!
I'm native Japanese and I took a look at JLPT N1 out of curiosity, and I was really surprised at how difficult the test was.
I couldn't solve over 1/3 of the questions there.
For those who passed N1, I sincerely respect you!
How are we supposed to pass if a native speaker can't answer a third of the questions?
@@jf8050 Maybe they just mean they're Japanese by ethnicity or lived in Japan a few years when they were younger? To my understanding, anyone who's truly fluent should be able to pass N1 with relative ease.
@@mannyw_ Not necessarily, to my understanding a lot of Japanese are forgetting higher level kanji
I had the same feeling when I took the English portion of the SATs years back in high school.
@@ligt18098 Isn't this mostly an issue of forgetting how to write characters, not read them?
I think an important thing to mention with regards to listening is to *actively* listen to the source. One thing I've noticed about myself is I can quite happily switch off and enjoy the melody of a song or watching a show but not pay to attention to what's being spoken
You have to be careful about this as it is much more strenuous on the mind to do so. It is important, but unlike our native language, it takes more effort, thus you'll have to be careful about overusing and burning out. Learned this the hard way and procrastinated too much
@@LeCatte mhm trying to understand Japanese without subtitles is hard enough
except eminem is singing. than it is quite the opposite. ^^ I am german, but I got used to english with a ton of hours listeing to eminem songs. ^^
later on it was the comment section on youtube.
my grammar sucks, but at least i understand what i hear and read. :D
I have the same thing with Spanish, I have to ''switch on'' to understand but find this surprisingly strenuous, I now have more respect for foreigners who constantly have to be ''switched on'' in my country and understanding English not as a first language as I just understand English automatically.
0:36 - Reading(読書)
3:30 - Writing(作文)
5:30 - Listening(聴解)
8:54 - Sponsor(提供)
10:37 - Speaking/Pronunciation(会話/発音)
Ah yes, the five disciplines of learning Japanese
@@Laura-ns9wx the sponsor is essential
To link timestamps use a colon : instead of a full stop .
0:36, 3:30, etc.
@@metalninja2474 Ohhhh no wonder why it wasn’t working. Thanks for pointing it out. Sorry about that.
@@AbzBdeir no problem! No need to apologise!
Hi Dogen,
I usually don't comment on videos and don't know how often you read comments, but I have to say, I've been watching for a few years now and you've blown it out of the park with every video! So glad to see more and more people subscribing and watching your videos. You somehow manage to release videos at exactly the right time (this time while looking for linguistics books and general recommendations), that are interesting and genuine.
The patreon courses are 100% worth it and incredible in their own right, and I can't tell you how many friends I've shown your sketches to.
Thank you for doing what you do!
いつも楽しく、興味深く拝見しています。本当にありがとうございます！
great comment!
I really think the reason I did well in Japanese was because of my professor. He's a Japanese native and translator prior to becoming a teacher. He would not let us be "good enough".
I can't remember the exact phrase but it had pauses and a weird inflection. We all struggled. Our professor would say the phrase correct but it sounded so similar that we thought we said it right.
Thank you, professor Morioka, for not letting us be close enough.
"I can't remember the exact phrase"
seems effective
My boy got a Nordvpn sponsorship, so proud of him!
Really enjoyed this video format, extremely insightful and very useful to learn Japanese!
Ps: good luck with the house!
I just want to second the immersion part. While my Japanese is downright childish compared to Dogen and has slipped a great deal, the single best thing I did when I was learning was listen to a Japanese radio program (through an app) on my commute to school. It made me leagues better than my classmates at the listening portion and other things and I immediately noticed added difficulty when I moved and no longer had that commute and therefore didn't keep up with listening to that radio program.
do you remember what it is? i should listen to it to be honest... the most i listen to is podcasts and yt videos
@@KuroShiiiiro sadly it was on what was back then (over six years ago, yikes) a pretty terrible app. I think I tried to access it a few years later and had difficulties, but I don't remember the name of the specific program either if I ever knew it. (It was written in Kanji when my reading skills were shite.)
Hey Dogen,
Since this video was about immersion, I thought I should share my experience as someone who learned Japanese through only immersion.
When I was in 3rd grade, my dad showed me and my siblings this cartoon called Ranma 1/2 (I know, terrible choice to show a kid). Shortly after I got into middle school, I suddenly remembered that cartoon, and, after doing my own research, found out that they were called "anime." I started out watching stuff like Inuyasha and One Piece, binging anywhere from 4 to 8 hours of anime a day. Around the time I entered high school, I realized I could understand the general gist of what the characters were saying without having my eyes glued to the subtitles. So I started a little game with myself. I translated the Japanese in my head, poking at what the characters could be saying, then comparing that to the subtitles afterward. I continued doing that all throughout my high school life, and by the end, I was fairly confident that I could watch without subtitles. Once I got into college, I wanted to challenge that notion. I started tuning into radios and podcasts of Japanese seiyuus and comedians, and found, to my surprise, that I could understand just about 90% of their speech, leave for the occasional slang and industry-specific/science words. Around the same time, I discovered a VTuber named Nekomata Okayu and started listening to her 雑談 streams while commuting, taking a walk, or working out. I started making clips and translating her streams as a form of practice, as it would force me to research words I didn't know, jokes I didn't understand, or memes I didn't recognize. And that brings us to now, where I'm finally using anki to learn kanji so that I can read manga and doujins in Japanese.
I definitely feel like my approach is a terribly inefficient way to learn Japanese, as it took me 7 years just to get to an N2-ish level of comprehension, and because not being able to read Japanese significantly hampers the amount of resources you can consult. However, I feel like it's helped me gain a deeper understanding of Japanese, one that's similar to how natives would parse the language, and I think that's the biggest benefit of immersion: Knowing not just the meaning of words, but the contextual undertones-the nuance, tone, implication, etc. The parts of words that are hidden in its use as compared to its definition.
yo u are the dude that translated okayu live, appreciate your work
edit: lol i just read your comment and you said that
Wow, impressive. I wish I could have tapped into another language from an early age.
Thanks for writing that. It was certainly an interesting take
I can confirm that this is indeed one of the best ways to learn a language through immersion alone. My native languages are Dutch and Papiamento.
I only started learning English when I was about nine years old. Basically all I did was watch UA-cam videos and try to decipher what the comments meant. By the time I was in high school I basically didn't even have to study for my English exams anymore because I was practically fluent by any definition of the word.
Reflecting back on that, I used the same approach a couple of years later to learn Spanish and Japanese. It works, but indeed it takes a lot of time and effort. What I'm noticing right now is that the older I get, the less patience I have to listen to incomprehensible gibberish for long periods of time. But that's what Anki and Dictionaries are for. Switching up your study methods also keeps things interesting and engaging.
Immersion is actually the MOST efficient way to learn if you combine it with Anki and reading grammar definitions. Of course, reading and listening is a must for efficiency.
Having watched more and more purely Japanese video content on UA-cam recently, while asking my Japanese friend in Twitter on the latest slangs and words they use everyday has greatly improved my listening and speaking skills over the past month. Yes, definitely agree with Dogen on this.
do you have any channel recommendations? =)
私日本人だけど、三島由紀夫は難しくて全部読めたことないです・・・またいつか頑張って読んでみます・・・
I actually copied what my dad did to learn English while in Pakistan, coincidentally being the same age as I am now, and that was to read a ton of children's books. and by that I mean preschool type, big text and loads of pictures
Uuh this comment is a bit old, but what books have you read? I've been looking to get a couple of children's books, maybe a short story collection or something like that. Any recommendations?
One of my favorite things is to read or listen to an excellent piece of writing. I get a lot of pleasure from searching the layers of meaning. I want to be able to enjoy excellent Japanese writing, too. I’m thankful that I can already enjoy great Japanese stories, but I also want to savor the language like I do in English. These recommendations are a great goal to work up to!
Also, your studio is awesome!
Thank you for the book recommendations! I'm interested in 音声を教える now.
I want to be a good Japanese teacher😊
日本語学習者のみなさん頑張ってください。英語が母語の人にとって日本語は相当むずかしいはずなのに、学び続けようとするやる気が素晴らしいです。尊敬します。日本人より。
I genuinely respect every single person on the earth who studies Japanese because it's freaking difficult unless you are a native Japanese speaker.
I wonder what Japanese's reputation would be with a simpler writing system.
I've been slowly transitioning from a textbook approach to the immersion method (listening to interviews, podcasts and TV in native Japanese). This video has provided me with a list of great resources to help me on that front. Thanks and best of luck with the house!
普段の動画だと光の当たり具合のせいか分かりにくかったけど、ドーゲンさんすごい目の色ブルーなんですね。めっちゃ綺麗！
The Sounds of Japanese is part of a (sort of) series of Sounds of… books for various languages by the same press (Cambridge University Press). Besides Japanese, it has books for French, German, Spanish, Chinese and Korean.
They are meant as textbooks for language majors taking a phonology class in that field, so each has an introduction to phonetics and phonology for people who have not taken course in that subject.
Hello :)
This is a really cool video for me, because I actually made a double profit from it. As a Russian native speaker who has been dealing with English for quite a long period and has also been learning Japanese for three years now, I've literally gotten a great pleasure to listen to such a clear and well-delivered speech by an English native speaker about Japanese pronunciation. I really enjoyed it, thanks a lot!
This is fantastic advice for...uh...ALL language learning ^_^ What a humble title to a powerful video. Thanks!
Dogen's background is quite possibly the most aesthetically pleasing background of any youtuber I watch
Great video! I was always curious about how to sound more natural when learning a language, and this video is a great resource! I think Dogen really did a lot of job for us researching about Japanese linguistics and pronunciation, I very appreciate that.
星新一さんの書く作品もめちゃくちゃおすすめです！
ショートショートスタイルで読みやすくて、そこまで難しい語彙もないと思います。
作品はちょっと古いものが多いかもしれませんが、未だにユニークなのでぜひ読んでみてください！
My best recommendation is Shinichi Hoshi's books!
His style is short short story, and written with easy vocabulary(impressions from Japanese tho)
His books are kind of old, but still unique. I really recommend his.
Just wanted to comment and say that Monster is 10/10, would definitely back Dogen's recommendation
First time I have ever been this early to a UA-cam video. Very informative! ありがとうございます、ドウゲンども！
I like how you highlighted the streaming aspect of VPNs instead of fearmongering about security.
most sponsor segments need to include a few key points that the company puts forward as a condition. it used to be that vpns would require them to say that it's about security but I've noticed that nowadays that line has been dropped from nearly all VPN sponsors since the companies know that we know they are bullshitting on that point
That's generally what the VPN sales pitch has moved to these days as people have gotten more savvy about what a VPN can actually do and therefore the whole security angle doesn't really work with a lot of people any more since it's not a type of security that's relevant to the general population, while people *have* discovered a very appealing niche of watching region locked content, which is far more actively beneficial to the user.
Dogen showing off his preference for the old-fashioned by talking up Mishima and talking down Murakami in the first two minutes lol
Very motivational video. I lived in Japan for 4 years and my wife is Japanese. I dream of being able to communicate effortlessly with her family.
8:54 should have went この番組はご覧のスポンサーの提供でお送りします (Japanese equivalent of "This show is brought to you by following sponsors.")
Vtubers, Japanese speaking ones at least, are a great way of trying to listen to natural Japanese and even slang or lingo. I do feel like it’s a good alternative to anime/dramas/radio. Of course that doesn’t help with actually building confidence speaking (though to be fair neither do the other things I listed)
Hey there Dogen, great video as all others here in the comments already stated!
About the house building part, I think for general questions and/or guidance you could get in touch with Rachel & Jun (from Rachel & Jun or Jun's Kitchen), as they recently moved into their house and are now Pros when it comes to customizing your house with japanese building companies. Also, maybe some room for collaborations? :D
I recently challenged 豊饒の海,a novel by Mishima, but vocabulary he uses is extremely difficult than I expected and I finally closed the book You are a fan of him right ? Amazing a viewer of you
潮騒 isn’t too bad in terms of vocabulary!
I love Audition! I think I commented about that on one of your videos like 5 years ago :D I have also written my master's thesis on Oe Kenzaburo and his image of father in his works and now I am working on my PhD thesis about the fantastical elements in works of Murakami Haruki, Oe, Tawada Yoko and Medoruma Shun. Dunno if reading itself really helped with my Japanese (I always get flustered when talking, surprisingly mostly in simple situations like at a counter, when I am explaining literary theory or history of European feudalism, that gets somehow surprisingly easy, probably a professional disorder) but you do learn a lot of expressions and stuff so I guess it works. If somebody wants to challenge themselves they should read like 小森陽一「源氏物語の始源と現在」 or something crazy like that :D But I guess that is first beyond most people in the comment section and also like really crazy, as far as the level of the language is concerned (it is a literary analysis of Heian literature, a very academic book I read last year for a thing, with a lot of classical language and stuff).
Anyway, I'll end my rambling, you're the best.
What is audition?
Yo, thanks for confessing you've watched a television series 20 times! I was getting self-conscious about rewatching content, but this was validating.
Thank you for this, I myself am struggling to maintain and improve my Japanese despite years of study, but you've clarified to me that consistency is just as important as learning new things.
I'm having trouble getting the confidence to speak it despite what I know, and I'm struggling to maintain my Japanese ability.
I don't have a JP language partner, so I was wondering how would one tap into that resource, be it from a website, friends or other means.
Also, thank you for telling us what you've been doing regarding JP language study, its really helpful to have a sort of reference as to what level of study is necessary to maintain a certain level of JP language ability.
Keep the videos coming and I hope you manage to build your house!
Cheers
I'm a part of a few Discord groups where you can practice with people if you want, but many people are too shy to actually participate...
Finally!!!! Someone who also prefers Murakami Ryuu over Murakami Haruki!! I am a big fan of his books too.
I interviewed foreign people who can speak Japanese well . They all focused on speaking, not learning kanji.
Heyy, big fan!
VPNs are so useful when studying foreign languages. I used one in Spain so I could watch Japanese Netflix, listen to NHK radio, and other stuff.
I love the way you think!
great stuff I do laso learn some japanese by learining currently correan in japanese... and watchnig some k dramas with korean subs often gives some new vocabs to work on
1N took me 4 times to succed because the required reading speed was boyond what we use in germany
I am more the type who anjoys texts but the speed that was required was to insane to find any joy
Talking about choosing the right word reminded me of the Mark Twain quote: "The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug."
Such valuable information. Very interesting! Очень интересно!
Technical correction: A VPN doesn't "trick your provider". It "tricks" the website you are accessing.
When I started learning English one of the first things I tried to understand was Diablo I. So my vocabulary always had some unusual words in it.
Some happened with Japanese as I learned a bit of words from anime before really studying. Even now my interests mean that some of my vocabulary might be a bit out of the way.
But I have to admit that reading and writing are still a big problem for me. I mean writing on a computer with a dictionary at hand isn't that bad but by hand...
I tried reading some stuff recently but always gave up. I tried Mashō no Ko 魔性の子 by Fuyumi Ono 小野不由美 because I like Jūni Kokuki 十二国記 but I couldn't even find many words in my dictionaries. Doesn't help that some of them are more like ancient Chinese than Japanese so a lot of research might be necessary.
Next I tried the Rurouni Kenshin mangas. Those should be doable.
I had a go at the Violet Evergarden light novels because I told a Japanese friend that he might like the show and suddenly the books appeared in my mail as "learning material". Also quite challenging.
It doesn't help that my eyes have gone pretty bad but I have corrective measures now that help a lot so maybe I should give it another go.
One of the most interesting compliments I ever received was from my French teacher at school: "I am always surprised how much you can say with knowing so little vocabulary."
Excuse me, I think a have a bit of Amazon shopping to do.
VPNs do trick the provider by not letting them see what information is being accessed and sent. If a VPN only tricked the website, it'd be useless for actually securing information since the provider could still see and report what's going on.
@@GreenLittleApple The provider should be able to tell that you are connecting to a VPN. But the website only knows that you are accessing from a VPN. So as long as the VPN doesn't betray the connection, the website won't know who to look for.
@@w花b Gesundheit. Sorry, forgot my French a long time ago.
Fuyumi Ono is also one of the first books I went to because I was familiar with her work in English... Terrible idea! It really is the hardest you can do within modern literature I think. How about 住野 よる? It was a good stepping stone for me at intermediate level.
@@mamieyoussi Thank you for the suggestion. And yes, picking a book because you know the English version and like it, isn't the best idea.
Unfortunately they stopped translating them but IIRC there are fan translations available.
I might give Rurouni Kenshin another go, that one might be doable but probably also contains quite a bit of "non standard" Japanese.
thanks dogen!
speaking of nativ conentet currently for several years I do listen daily to japanese youtubers, like hikaru, hikakin, nakata atsuhiko, daigo, tenchumu, hana den etc
OMG, such a useful collection of information, ty so much!!
Great video idea. Thanks for the recommendations.
yeah i really enjoy it too!
Monster is also one of my top 3. Gintama, Monster and Hajime no Ippo.
listening to natives speak is what really made things click for me tbh. middle school weab me watched anime/naruto for years and only picked up the cliche phrases. then i jumped to johnnys, binged all their variety shows and thats when it started clicking this means this, etc. its also really important to learn filler words which dont happen naturally in scripted shows (technically yes variety is scripted too BUT)
not fluent since i havent taken formal classes/sat down to study but if i can understand 80% of the stuff thats being said in an interview that will probably never ever be translated then im satisfied 😎
Formal classses are really overrated. If you wanna get fluent, just watching tons of content in japanese will get you there
Can anyone recommend good native Japanese UA-cam channels? All I've seen so far is channels dedicated to teaching Japanese, street interviews, craft videos where nobody says anything or prank/gaming/anime oriented channels - I'm not interested in any of that. I noticed that I mainly watch video essays in English and that's how I'm maintaining that language but I struggle with finding anything in Japanese while I'm already past intermediate level in my study. I would like to listen to someone discussing the national news, talking about the culture or science, etc. I just don't know who's a go to channel for that. Thanks in advance!
Sambon juku is a really good one to do inmerssion,is a japanese guy doing some type of radio based in JLPT lenguage
😮 INCREDIBLY USEFUL VIDEO and perfect timing for me!! I just moved back to Japan and will be studying Japanese like crazy over winter vacation!! LOVE ALL YOUR VIDEOS 😊 ❤️ thank you 🙏
My fav anime and manga is monster, too! :) I struggle with starting learning. I had courses but I tend to forget grammer and words when not using (normal, I guess) and try to implement hearing japanese and getting back into anime (so i get a little bit of japanese into my day). and i am struggling to find books and stuff I can read, because more than often i dont understand anything, because i dont get the grammer or the words. that frustrates to no end and i am really at a loss where to start and stay consistent...:/
日本人の目から見てもとっても面白いです！そして後ろの提灯、永平寺は私の故郷にある美しいお寺です:) ぜひいつか遊びに来てください。
Your background is really cool.
Good luck with the new house Dogen. Love your content :)
I've been listing to music and watching anime, when I talk (roughly) to native speakers they think I'm Japanese because I don't have a accent. I would just repeat words in anime to train myself how to speak. Thank you for all these tips!
ドウゲン(道元)か? 正法眼蔵。只管打坐。Forget about 村上春樹。I recommend you read 「この国のかたち」全6巻 written by 司馬遼太郎.
These are the essys about essential aspects Japanese history and culture.
道元さん、はじめまして。I was introduced to your channel through UA-cam algorithm pretty recently and I'm already having serious addiction with your videos both comedies and studying topics. By the way, I am really curious how much you can score at Japanese literature test witch is a part of the common test for university admissions (formerly known as the national center test for university admissions), as native speakers like myself are much more acquainted with it rather than JLPT. The exam of 2022 will be held from Jan 15th to 16th, and the examination paper will be published for free on websites like Asahi Shimbun Digital on the same day. I will appreciate it if you can make a video on this test and disclose your great ability in Japanese. 何卒よろしくお願いいたします。
In the end we all agree that Dogen is a genius
I feel like I’m at a point where I mainly just need to learn more vocabulary and some grammar but idk what the best way to do this would be. It’s also hard to find time with school and everything. I think im at a weird in between stage where I know a good amount but not enough to watch/read something and fully understand it. I’d probably understand some but not a lot
i respect that ff7 ultimania remake book behind your grace :D
Hello Dogen,
I appreciate the advice that you gave concerning studying Japanese, as I have started to do so, this year in April. As for listening to native Japanese speakers, I watch and listen to WNI, a weather broadcasting channel (where everything is spoken into Japanese). I am able to learn a bit more about Japanese culture and vocabulary for quite a while now. The channel itself gives weather forecast 24 hours days, 365 days in year, which I find quite informative. All the Japanese spoken in the program is generally standard Japanese; however, some casters do put in some of their own dialect from time to time. Therefore, I was wondering if this channel is a good medium to improve my Japanese. Or do I need to approach other mediums to better myself in nihongo.
Thank you for your time.
三島由紀夫いいねぇ〜
Dogen, really like your content, I have spanish as first language im currently learning Japanese and improving my English, for japanese listening what is your opinion on jp Vtubers?
"How have I been studying Japanese, you ask? Good question. First, you need to understand that Mishima Yukio is better than Murakami Haruki --" *cue ending cards*
この動画は実際に役に立つと思いますが、私のレベルの人(N4)を対象としたものではないようです。ちなみに~は翻訳機を使いました。
thanks!
Hi josh
Hi josh
Hi josh
Hi josh
Something I'd really like to know, related to the 音声を教える resource: are there any similarly good converse resources for explaining how best to correct English pronunciation? I very much appreciate the idea of people knowing how to correct me, and I'd like to be able to offer corrections/advice in a more clear/efficient manner than I currently do.
Gonna have to try this out
LETS GOOOOOOOO
I'm not trying to be an architect for a job or anything but if I ever grow old it has always been a dream of mine to build my own house idk why Dogen saying he's buildin a house gets me hype but it does
You're rad dude. Keep up the great content
I've also watched what's out of SNK's final season around 20 times now lol
I practice Japanese Calligraphy.
Dogen, you should also try to take Kanken level 1||| ドーゲンさんも漢検1級を受けよう！
Based Dogen.
6:37 wait, WHAT 😢😭😣
Thank you
I don't get why reading N1 prep books is advisable for your level (near native) when you can just read the news in Japanese. There's a lot of topics that the news can cover without the style of writing being catered to language learners. Also, if "present day society" no longer challenges you, have you tried reading novels from genres like sci-fi, history, or fantasy?
I was browsing the comments to see if my question/comment was asked and it doesn't seems to be:
I strongly believe that you need to learn from a native speaker. There's so many subtleties in a language (whether it's contextual or pronunciation) that it's better to learn them as soon as possible. Would you agree with that statement as a N1 graduate?
ドウゲンさん、大阪弁も忘れんといてな。大事やで。
**ドーゲンさんと言ったほうがいいですよ。
@@Piyush978 なんで？
@@thenotorious5463 When you use katakana, you generally use the long line to show elongated vowels rather than something like ou or ei.
彼の名前は漢字表記すると「道元」だったと思うので、「ドウゲン」で間違ってないと思います。
ドウゲンで間違ってないですよ
I can somehow identify myself because I'm trying to maintain the level I have in English by listening to native English-speaking youtubers. I find it funny that I watch a video about studying Japanese in order to keep my English level from deteriorating.
最近、Duolingoからあまり何も習っていないし、Ankiを使うのは疲れそうと思う。多分アニメを見ると、私は日本語がもっと上手になる。日本に行きたいな (ಥ╭╮ಥ)
To add to what Dogen is saying, MOOCs are also a great way to expand your vocabulary range in Japanese. Taking notes as you listen or doing the provided tests are good ways to interact with the content and retain vocabulary. It's a pity many Japanese MOOCs are about digitalization and therefore full of カタカナ語, but I keep looking for those rare humanities courses!
I'm an intermediate to advance level Japanese, but I haven't read/written kanji in a while, and it's depleted immensely. Would you have any advice on how to pick up kanji again without going back to square one?
Could you please write the titles of the books that you 'skiped' in the video? Thank you.
pump down the blue filter
This is a year late but 音声 is phonetics not phonology. Phonology is 音韻論 😊
Check out Kazufumi Shiraishi “the part of me that isn’t broken inside”
3:42 IT MOVED!
Can you share the jlpt N1 reading materials you mentioned please? That’d be very helpful!
Me listening to this "no way that's way too difficult for learning Japanese" while also realising that I have done just that with English.
Listening to a lifetime worth of all sorts of English content from being 10 years old to be able to comprehend and not sounding overwhelmingly Swenglish when speaking English.
My brain constantly protesting Japanese content when it feels like a wall of sounds that makes almost no sense and maybe 5 to 10 percent of words pop out and sort of makes sense. When I indulge in almost any English content it's 5 to 10 percent that I have to infer or investigate so it is indeed quite the opposite.
Can someone tell me why the 公開 on the title doesnt have a する attached to it? Thanks in advance!
I think that not adding a する gives more impact to the title of the video. Instead of writing a full sentence, it gives a more dynamic title. This is also true for newspaper articles, I saw à lot of them with words 'missing' in order to create this impression. As you have particles in japanese, you can more easily guess the missing words.
I am not sure about English, but in French, erasing words from newspaper articles titles is also frequent.
@@Sylvelarmes my first language is spanish (fairly close), so i do get the title thing you mention and it makes all the sense in the world lol, thanks a bunch man!
Finding comprehensible input as a beginner is *painful*. I still can’t understand よつばと. I’ve been reading / listening to books on PIBO, but even there I have a hard time understanding anything for kids above 2 or 3 years old 😭
yo is that kuvshinov Ilya's Motoko Kusanagi signed ????
I dun want my english to deteriorate… and thats why i keep listening to it two hours a day
Regionlocked streaming services stay regionlocked regardless of VPN if you live in Europe because of a EU regulation of cross-border portability of online content.
Have you read Osamu Dazai?
You're incredible!
Listen to as much native Japanese as possible.
In other words: Listen to Dōgen.
Hey Dogen, thanks for consistently putting out quality content! Do you (or anyone reading this) have any suggestions for apps someone living outside of Japan can use for reading Japanese novels?
Shin nosuke is my teacher lol
Me: *Barely know any japanese. Still don't know all the hiragana and katakana.*
Also me: Ah yes this is a video I should watch.
It gives us beginners a direction to aim at 😊
@@elusivemayfly7534 It certainly does.
If you want to improve your learning of Japanese, you have to do what Dogen advises in this video: listen to as much speech from native Japanese speakers as possible. That's true for beginners as much as for anyone else. It's tricky to find material spoken by native Japanese speakers that is of a suitable level for beginners to get much out of, but if you keep looking, you will find some gems, here and there.
@@omp199 That’s great advice! I was thinking of watching at least a bit of Japanese shows and movies every day. I watch native speakers’ videos in Japanese on UA-cam and get crazy excited when I recognize words / phrases / grammar. 😄 I’m in this for the lifelong language journey! Southern American accent and all!
WAIT HE SPEAKS ENGLISH?